Barn Raising

 Sunrise on the first day of summer. Our homestead project has been sitting idle, all this while.... We poured the foundation in early November, and then waited out the rainy season. Scott started a new job in February, teaching woodworking at the local high school. So, we have patiently waited for summer break--- Scott adjusting to the demands of his new job, Penny turning three and beginning pre-school two mornings a week, and Annie picking up a bit of part-time work. It all sounds so 

ordinary, and it is. We've become accustomed to our tent & camper living, and life just clips along. We skated through another extremely mild winter with plenty of extra firewood and a buttoned up little tent-cabin that felt cozy and warm and comfortable. The camper did not fair so well. The dampness of the cooler months made it a place we went to only to bath and prepare meals. We ate, slept, read and lived almost exclusively in the tent. Though the camper did not leak, the condensation and continual use took their toll. There are signs of deterioration showing up here and there, and we are ever more conscious of the fact that it is a Temporary Living Situation. And we better get our act together.

 Then- BANG! The first day of summer and it all begins. The framing materials arrived from the lumber yard on Scott's last day of school, and the next day he was up  at 6:00 am laying out the sills. Not even one day of sleeping in.

But this is really the fun part. This is what everyone pictures when you say you are building a house. Yet it has taken us three years to get to this point. And it has been two years since we moved into our little platform tent without electricity or running water. But here we are, and now that it is summer, things are moving at lightning speed!

 We have been overwhelmed by the kindness and support and energy that our families have given us. My parents came for two weeks and helped raise the first walls. Scott's brothers carved out time away from their lives and families to donate their muscle and sweat, my dad pushed through days and days of heat and long hours to keep pace with Scott, and now Scott's dad arrived today, and has already been put to work raising the first wall of the second floor...

So, here it is. The sequence of events.... how a building arises out of a stack of wood and a few boxes of nails.









Scott built the walls on the ground, squared them, and then we raised and braced them all in one day.









Next came leveling and plumbing the walls. As I had to explain to my father, Scott frames like a finish carpenter- perfect squares, precise cuts and exact measurements. But that has also meant that when things went up.... they fit together! At least so far....

 The sheeting was fast. I felt like I went inside to put the little one down for a nap, and when I came out, we had a building! And I was ready to start moving in. There is something about having those walls that makes living inside feel so possible... so tangible. Why not at least install the toilet right now? Why not? We have walls!

Then there were joists.... and now there is a floor. The footprint of what will be our studio apartment.  Our rent-free studio apartment.

Reality Check

Homesteading has begun to sink in. The reality of this challenge is in full swing as we make our way through January. Our first winter living on the land. The water line froze this weekend, and we were forced to retreat to South Pine Cafe for coffee and facilities. What a hardship.

The sunshiny glory of the California summer is in the distant past now, and I think about how much we've done- how incredibly hard Scott has worked, and how little we seem to have to show for it. But we have made progress, and I suppose, since we missed the opportunity to send a Christmas letter this year, I feel compelled to let everyone in on all that has happened.
We are indeed back living in our little tent, with the camper now conveniently parked only steps away. As winter approached, we added walls and insulation to the inside of the tent, along with a wonderful little wood stove that is keeping us toasty....sometimes a little too toasty! The camper provides for our bathroom and kitchen needs, but we spend the majority of our time in the tent; playing Ponies, reading books, and doing the occasional puzzle by candlelight when the power goes out. It is a quiet time of year, with the construction halted due to rain and lack of funds.
But here's a little summary of what has happened:

MAY - Moved back to our land and submitted our building plans to the county....Permits!

 JUNE - Clearing. Felling trees, pulling stumps, splitting logs.

JULY -  Destruction. Grading, Leveling, Compacting the earth where our tiny little barn will be. We had wonderful help from friends here. Scott's co-worker's swooped in for a whole weekend to help operate the heavy machinery. So much dust and devastation for such an small building- roughly 32' x 28'. 

 AUGUST - Layout. Now with our perfectly flat building site, Scott began the tedious task of perfectly staking corners and squaring the building. We had a dirty dusty existence this summer... each footstep was like walking on the moon as we entered August... Remember, it does not rain here from June to September. Not even a drop.

SEPTEMBER - In the trenches.  Digging the trenches for water, power, and septic, along with digging the footings for the foundation.

 OCTOBER - Forming. Scott built the forms for the foundation, Leveled the rock, and then in an all-out-blitz weekend, his brothers helped complete the under-slab insulation, re-bar, moisture barrier, and hydronic tubing.

 NOVEMBER - The Foundation. We were ready for the concrete truck just after the first big rain of the season.

 DECEMBER - Holidays and Celebration! We have a foundation!

 We have entered the winter months now with a sense that we have completed the first step in building our home, though there were thousands of steps to get us where we are today. We are resting and recuperating now, but there has still been plenty to do around the homestead. Scott has been digging again this month, putting in a perimeter drain around the foundation, and last weekend was consumed by a burn pile. We have had a mountain of roots and stumps front and center in the yard since July when we cleared the building pad. The largest stump was at least 7 feet tall and we were convinced that we would need to rent the excavator again to move it- but together we nudged, twisted, shoved, and then daringly rolled it into the fiery pit. The last coals were still twinkling after four days of burning. As the mountain of branches disappeared into a smoldering mound, we headed to town again- water lines still frozen- to view the Wild and Scenic Film Festival. I'll be honest- this year has been really tough. Some days it doesn't seem worth it, other days it does. But what else would we be doing with our lives, if not living our dreams?

Back to the Land

Well the harsh winter never really did arrive this year, but whatever chill we had has certainly left now. After 6 months of luxury apartment living, we are preparing to go "back to the land" once again. We are returning with renewed excitement and energy as the spring has brought blooming red buds and rhododendrons to our neighborhood, and we talk about the garden we hope to cultivate. I have spent a couple of days preparing the first bed of our vegetable garden....

The camper has been moved closer to the tent, and we are discussing other strategies to make life in the temporary shelter just a bit more comfortable this year. We learned so much last summer... the way the sun moves across the sky... how to maximize shade in the late afternoon... what things we truly need and use, and what things just take up space. It was only a year ago that we "downsized" and "simplified" our possessions to move here, yet I find myself, once again, donating a carload of mass.

Our building project moved ahead, bit by bit, even during the cooler months. The lack of rain and snow allowed us to install the septic system in mid-January... With that done, we now have all of our initial land development and utilities completed. Power, water, septic, and road access.When we first moved to the land last June, we were hauling water from the street, using candles and flashlights at night, and bathing with a bucket behind the tent.... yikes. Thankfully that was very short lived!

 Scott also took advantage of the laundry room/office in our apartment, and completed the building plans for the first structure- a barn/shop with a studio apartment on the second floor. We submitted the plans last week and will need to wait 4-6 weeks now for the county's approval.

In the meantime, we have plenty of gardening, clearing, and landscaping to do.... We are looking forward to another hot summer with dusty days on the land, trips to the river to cool off, and just being back home.

In The Past Three Months...

Ah, remembering summer! Three full months ago now, and after a long and glorious fall, we are settling in for the harsh winter they keep saying is coming....
September seemed like one continuous work party as we welcomed all of Scott's family members- though not all at the same time. We put everyone to work until they were all tired and dirty and vowing to get a hotel the next time they visit. So much love and sweat and beer. Thanks family!
We had a daunting list of small but important projects that needed to be completed to winterize our homestead. Even though it had been months without a hint of precipitation, some squirrel-like instinct inspired Jeff and Scott to whip out a storage shed. It took less than a day, and they had the whole yard sale- tools and bikes, chairs and all- neatly stowed away, just minutes before the first sprinkles.

There was chainsaw maintenance, filling in the water line trenches, tree felling and clearing, and then the biggest chore of them all....... moving the tent. After much debating and deliberating, we decided to change our original site plan and move the barn closer to the proposed home site. This meant that we had to move the tent (because it was sitting right where the barn will need to be), and it also meant cutting a couple of the big pine trees. Felling 120 ft. trees was a successful, but nerve racking task. This was a compromise plan needed to avoid some less than ideal land formations... (or should I say deformations?) that we found on the property. But we are grateful that we have spent so much time living here and getting to know and understand our land before beginning to build in the wrong spot!

The pace of our projects slowed down in October, as the air cooled and the trees became glorious. With our electric panel and water lines completed, the next major projects all seem to involve some serious land moving and machinery. We hired a local backhoe driver to carve out the driveway and connect us to the road. This had been a high priority because our only access was across our neighbors' front lawn. However, the project had been held up all summer by a PG&E power box centered in the middle of the driveway, and it took until mid-October for a crew to come out, make a big mess of the road, and move the box to where it should have been in the first place. Then, in only two days, for our friend the backhoe driver to expertly dig out a driveway from the hill, and it looks beautiful.

We were so impressed that we asked for his help with the septic system as well. However, with a rainy weekend in the forecast, he talked us into waiting until spring before digging up the field.... so here we sit... waiting until spring....

November has not been as rainy or snowy or cold or anything as people here keep telling us it should be. Perhaps we've lucked out this year, but none-the-less it has become just chilly enough to make spending much time in the tent uncomfortable and impractical. We had a couple of weeks of quality camper living (as you can witness in the video above), before we started to notice Penny pacing the aisle- running back and forth from bed to bathroom in four or five little baby steps- We contemplated insulation options for the tent, different heaters or a wood burning stove, even a hot tub before I found an apartment for rent just down the street......

It's not fancy or cute or quaint, but it is so stinkin' Convenient! Flushing toilets, a full size bath with an unending supply of hot water, Laundry, a KITCHEN with an actual SINK and an oven! We haven't had that since 2006.
So we are now living in luxury with the basic American amenities, while waiting for this harsh, rugged winter to arrive...and then leave. We are feeling quite stress free with the new space and time that comes with convenience, and as we enter the holiday season, we have been meeting new people, and enjoying the most festive little town in all of California! Happy Holidays!
http://www.nevadacitychamber.com/view.cfm

Our First Summer in the Sierra

We're still in the thick of summer. It's been in the 90's all week, and we haven't had a drop of rain here since June. But even though the dry, dusty heat will still be around for a while, the fact that today is Labor Day makes me feel like our first summer on the land is coming to a close. I'm starting to think about what the trees will look like in the fall, and of course, what we will do in the winter...

This past week we reached two major milestones. On August 27th, a crew of PG&E electricians pulled the wire to our electrical panel that had been standing, ready and waiting, for a full month. Finally we are energy independent! From the neighbors that is... We are planning to build a passive solar home and have a few solar panels in the future, but at the moment, our connection to the grid is necessary, and a huge accomplishment.

We reached the second milestone this morning, when Scott turned on the water! He completed the truly monumental task of digging a trench for our water line from the street (where we are hooked in to city water) back to the home and barn site. That's roughly 600 feet of trenching that was done in 1 day with a rented chain trencher, and then took another 4 weeks of hand digging and chopping and cutting. Scott has worked harder than I've ever witnessed anyone work in my whole life. I mean, I know that people have done harder work and for longer time, but this is far beyond what any normal American man would do today... some might suggest it was stubborn pride or economic hardship that drove him do this work himself, instead of hiring a backhoe and driver to do it, quick and dirty... but I know it is because there was a sense of wanting to know our land... truly Know it... that kept him digging and learning. It also allowed him to install the water line with minimal damage to the surrounding trees by digging under or around many of the larger roots. I'm convinced that his efforts saved the lives of our beautiful madrone trees along the driveway, and will keep several of our towering pines from falling in a winter storm.

Other new developments to the homestead include the addition of my parent's camper! They left it here indefinitely before heading back to Germany, and we have been spoiled by the bigger bed, kitchen with an actual stove (something we didn't even have in Berkeley!!) and a shower. Don't get me wrong... its not luxurious. We live in single file and the shower's so small you can't bend over to wash your feet. But, hey, it's a lot more than we had before. We still live in the tent for all other purposes, drafting table, office, living room and play room. Also, it makes great guest quarters and has been employed for that use on many occasions this summer.

When we started planning this move, back at the beginning of the year, I think Scott and I both imagined that our first summer would be slow and long, and we would have completed our utilities, installed a septic system, and laid the foundation for the barn. We now have a more accurate understanding of the terrific amount of work that it takes, that each movement forward is built on weeks of labor... And of course, we are attempting to maintain jobs and raise an adorable little girl at the same time. With that in mind, I think we're moving along just fine. Besides, I take the perspective that we are here, doing what we dreamed of doing, and we have our whole lives to do it.

Mikal-Heine-Kautz State Park

This week our home has felt more like a State Park than a homestead... The campground began to take shape when Mark, Judy & Miles arrived and set up their new family tent for the holiday weekend! It had only been three weeks since I'd seen them, but it felt like Miles had added months worth of new accomplishments and personality developments. Penny was super happy to have her best friend here, and she woke up each morning with an excited "DEE!!" when she heard his little (or not so little) cry from across the yard. She happily shared her tub with him and they made it through the hottest weekend yet with temperatures in the high 90's the whole time. Yikes.

My parents made the epic journey towing thier camper from Chicago to California and arrived on the 4th of July. If two tents and camper weren't enough to make it feel like a KOA, there was the nightly sound of Aerosmith and Springstein echoing up the valley each night as our neighbors celebrated Independence Day. All we were missing was the shower house and pit toilets....and those would have been welcomed luxuries. I know that we have chosen a challenging lifestyle, but I'm really impressed by our families' abilities to put up with all our discomforts. It has been crazy hot... and we have no shower and no airconditioning. The guys have been out working hard to build our electrical service and dig the 4 foot deep trench to the utilities. Mark spent two days digging and pouring concrete with Scott, my dad and Scott have spent the week picking and shoveling a chest deep trench in hard-pan red clay... long hard hours of work. And mind you, baby-care in 90 degree heat is no easy task either. My mom has been entertaining Penny while I'm at work, making trips to McDonald's or the hardware store, just to find some relief in the air conditioning. Daily walks down to our cold local creek have been refreshing and downright crucial.

But this one week full of extra hands and help has brought us to a major milestone. Our first permanent structure... The next step is to have the county inspector check it out. If we pass inspection, then we can fill in the trench and have the electric company come out to pull the wire. It there will still be one more inspection after that, too, so actual power is still a way off, but hey...it looks a lot like progress!

Here we are surveying our accomplishments thus far...notice the two meter sockets on our elelctric panel. There will be copious amounts of available electricity, but the idea is that eventually one of those meters will spin backwards!

Yard Sale!!

Yes, we are alive and well and full time residents of Nevada City, California!! Apologies for leaving everyone in suspense. We completed the move on June 12th, and have been buried in bins and baby toys for the past couple of weeks. I (Annie) started full time work on June 15th, and the job is all I had hoped it would be. Scott and Penny have been setting up house in our little tent and have become super buddies.
Of course, I am writing this on a hot, sunny Saturday. Baby is napping in the shade, dishes are done, tent is swept, diapers washed and hanging on the line. All is finally in order and we have worked out so many of the little systems and routines required for daily living. I shouldn't understate, though how challenging this has been. We had been lovingly referring to our homestead as the "yard sale".... possessions strewn about, hanging on the tent rails, cars and chairs and tools and pots all a jumble in the yard... I am a neat and tidy kind of person, and the stress of the disorganization combined with my anxiety over being away from Penny and the simple newness of EVERYTHING!!!! Well, it's been tough. Now, exactly three weeks after moving day, I am starting to feel like I'm getting the hang of living again.

Scott, on the other hand, has been experiencing pure delight in being in this place with his daughter... and he's much more tolerant of the yard sale. The challenge for him has been to adjust to the slower pace and accept the fact that little, if anything, gets accomplished while doing full time baby care. Daily chores and tent-keeping is really all he is able to do during the day. Building research and projects have been relegated to nights and weekends. I'm sure this will not always be the case, and we have lots of help coming! My brother was here last weekend, Scott's brother & family are here this weekend, and my parents will be here for a week and a half after that!

So, everyone we talk to want so know the logistics. You know the Details. Yes, we sleep in the tent, but how do we cook? Is there running water? Where do we shower or, you know, go to the bathroom? There's an explanation and a really hilarious story to go with each answer, though I don't think I'll have the time to recount them all in this post. Here's the quick version, just to relieve those nagging questions in the back of your mind.... Cooking: We have a propane grill that we use just like a regular gas stove... We cook not only burgers, but pasta, eggs, fajitas, and even Scott's world famous chocolate chip cookies!
Water: We have running water at the street. Scott has been making one trip a day with Penny and the wagon to haul water back in our 5 gallon jug. Five gallons! That's all we need for drinking, cooking dishes, and bathing the baby. Scott usually walks down to Deer Creek (just a few hundred yards down the hill), for a bone chilling scrub in the river. I, however, have opted for the luxury of the local health club. Hey- don't judge.

As for other bathroom necessities... there is a port-o-potty at our neighbor's construction site...

Oh! I almost forgot. Electricity: The electric panel is still not completed, though we finally acquired the last of the necessary materials today. We lived for the first 10 days without any electricity...candles in the evening, and only buying fresh food that would be eaten the same day...until our neighbors generously offered to run an extension cord from their yard. Though I was initially opposed, wanting to be self-reliant and not impose on others, it turns out that a refrigerator is THE basic technology needed for civilized life. Box milk for Penny, mooshy butter, questionable cheese, and warm drinks on a hot day....I'm really, really thankful for that little cord running to my mini-fridge.

On Our Way!

Today is June 10th, Scott's last day of work. Tomorrow is June 11th, our official Moving Day. It has been a sad week of goodbyes with dinners, parties, and picnics signaling the end of our cozy life in Berkeley. And life has been cozy and comfortable here.... with family one block away, surrounded by thoughtful and engaging friends, a view of the Golden Gate Bridge from our living room, and some of the best food on the west coast just a short walk down the hill.
We are leaving Berkeley with a feeling of appreciation for the support and inspiration it has given us as we've prepared for this next adventure. There is no shortage of people here who have already done what we are about to do... or some similar experiment in living. The responses we've received to our posts have been an encouragement and reminder to us that we are not alone in our desire to live a simpler life that is in closer connection to nature. People are doing it everywhere, in their own unique ways.
Now the update. On Memorial Day Weekend we had our first overnight visitor to the land. My sister helped us move up "The Essentials", and developed a useful technique for coaxing the baby to sleep in the wagon.
The delivery of the spiral staircase went, but not without a hitch. Something about the geometry of a spiral made it quite unwieldy, and nearly impossible to predict which way it will fall or when it will lose balance... in the end we got it out of the truck with only one large dent in the bed, and sheering off only a small portion of the tailgate trim... But it didn't roll anyone over, so we feel successful.
We set up a water collection system which consists of a hose, buckets and the wagon... It seems that Penny's 1st birthday present from her grandparents will be one of our basic survival tools. It transports water AND puts the baby to sleep at the same time? Perfect.
Our current apartment is now completely packed and ready to start hauling tomorrow. Everything is in boxes and divided into piles based on its destination: tent or storage. Once we leave, we won't have electricity or internet, so we will try to be consistent about getting to the library to post updates. Thanks to everyone for all the help and support and prayers and well wishes. We are on our way!

The Essentials

We returned to our tent once more this month to bring up a bit of furniture and to get a sense of what life will be like living here. We are less than one month away from our official moving date, June 11th. Scott's last day of school is June 10th, and I begin my new job in Nevada County on June 15th.
The logistics are pretty intense and not all perfectly worked out yet, but we have a feeling that each problem or need will be met and solved as it arises. I admit, there have been moments of anxiety and the occasional panic stricken thought of, "Wait. What am I doing?!" But honestly, these fears are mostly tied to my concern about being away from Penny and making the transition back to working full time. I know these feelings are the same for every mother, wherever and whenever she first goes back to work. This will be a much bigger challenge than living in a tent, I'm sure of it!

But back to logistics. On this last trip we moved the futon and the workbench into our temporary home. The futon, for sleeping, the workbench for safe keeping. Scott made this workbench last year and it has since been soaking up moisture in our very damp garage in Berkeley. The bench has suffered a great deal in these conditions, and we're hoping that the drier mountain air will calm some of the expansion and warping that has occurred. Normally a workbench wouldn't be your first priority piece of furniture in a move, but this bench was a labor of love, a work of art, a piece of furniture, a tool, and the cornerstone of Scott's future woodworking shop. It was put ahead of the dining room table.
We have another trip planned for Memorial Day weekend to move a few more of the logistically complicated items. Specifically, a car and a spiral staircase.... a what? Yes. A spiral staircase. Scott and his brother rescued it from a jungle of vines, tied up and hanging down the side of a Berkeley canyon... It has since been undergoing repairs and renovations by Scott's students, and I still haven't actually seen it. But where will it be going? And why do we have it? These are questions I leave up to Scott's inspiration and ingenuity. However, I'm trying to imagine what we will look like from across the fence... living in a tent with a workbench as our table, and outside, an old '97 Ford Escort parked next to a spiral staircase. You know...just the essentials.

The Temporary Shelter

In 2009, Scott ordered a book titled, Mortgage Free, (you can read his review on Amazon.com). The author, Rob Roy, outlined his philosophy and strategies for living free of a home mortgage (literally, the "death pledge"). This book stands out as more of a guide than most of what Scott reads -- we have returned to it over and over in the past 2 years, as we planned and dreamed about how someday we, too, might build our home and life in a way that did not enslave us to money and the need to have copious amounts of it. The two key principles of the Rob Roy strategy included #1 the grubstake (I hate that word...though, and will substitute "nest egg" instead) and #2 the temporary shelter.
The purest followers of the strategy would first save up a nest egg big enough to pay for land outright... with cash. We chose a more impatient route and took out a small $80,000 mortgage to buy our 1 1/2 acres last fall -- when prices were very low. The monthly payment is very small, and we felt that it would still give us ample flexibility until we can pay it off.

So that was Step #1... a slow, slow process of saving, working a lot, navigating banks and real estate offices, and countless trips to Nevada County to drive endless miles of back country road, walking property lines and scraping through manzanita bushes...Scott estimates he walked over 60 properties and this parcel was easily one of the smallest. We used our nest egg to put a large down payment on the land and had a bit left over to start our homesteading project.

Step #2 The Temporary Shelter. Here is where it gets exciting! Planning how we would move to the land and figuring out how to live there... as soon as possible! Our decade of idealizing the "Simple Life" will now be put to the test. What are the basic necessities? Can we continue to hold "normal" jobs without living in a "normal" house? Rob Roy's book describes in detail how people build temporary dwellings on their land, to occupy for free while using your resources to build the actual house. All that money being burnt up on rent and utilities and cable TV and other nonsense gets redirected in building a homestead. We, however, live in a county (state really) with a pretty stringent building code, so most of the temporary shelter's described wouldn't come close to meeting permit requirements. We opted for the temporary tent instead, which still fails to satisfy code requirements, but in the words of the county planner "We have no way to permit it" and..."What's the worst that could happen?"...
The photos above shows our first homesteading encampment. During spring break, we slept in the bed of Scott's truck while building the tent platform. Please note the handmade wooden lumber rack made from an exotic Amazon wood, as mentioned in the previous post. We were hopeful that we would pitch this tent in a few days, and spend the rest of the week working on other developments- namely, electricity. So we set up camp on Saturday...

Sunday, Scott purchased the building materials. Who knew this would be a full day event?

Monday... Breaking ground. It was a strange feeling to be making our first marks on the land. There was the amazement that we were actually beginning our homestead, but also a feeling of responsibility- we were also starting to make our own footprint on the place, and our actions could be either helpful or hurtful.

Tuesday... Much of the same. Leveling the ground became a day and 1/2 long digging project for Scott, and Annie was of no help to him. The baby seemed to be feeling a bit exposed as hawks circled above, and she sprouted her very first tooth- both things resulted in a very clingy baby for our first few days on the land.

Wednesday... Annie's first day of work. Scott had the day to practice being the stay-at-home dad... a role reversal that will be a nice change of pace for everyone, we think.

Thursday... The platform's STILL not done???

Friday... Penny was more and more comfortable playing in the pine needles and watching us work. We finished the floor and started on the ridge poles.

Saturday ... it all came together. The side rails went up, we hoisted the tent onto the ridge, our neighbor helped pull the rain fly over the top, and we finished fastening grommets and tying ropes just in time to have dinner with a friend. Our new home was built in 7 days!